Celebrated interior designer Phoebe Howard often visited her grandparents’ farm in Alabama as a child. It was there that she first nurtured an appreciation for a well-tended home. “Visits with people were a big deal. Everybody spent time together, and it just sort of made a lasting impression on me—that your house is really important and should be given a lot of consideration,” she said in a recent interview. Howard channeled that attentiveness into a career, first making her name operating Mrs. Howard, a home furnishings establishment that has since expanded into multiple locations across the southern United States, together with her husband. Around 2005, she branched out into interior design, developing a reputation for her fresh takes on traditional styles—elegant, timeless, yet updated for modern living. In Howard’s latest and fourth book, “The Principles of Pretty Rooms,” she outlines how to create spaces that are warm, inviting, and comfortable. …